Canned rejection emails. Job interviews conducted by AI chatbots. Hundreds of applications submitted into silence. As employers lean on automated screening tools to filter ever-larger applicant piles, career experts make a counterintuitive case in a new Associated Press feature carried by 1News in New Zealand: the old-fashioned professional network has become one of the most valuable assets a job seeker can hold.
“Networking is important whether you’re searching for a job or not,” Catherine Fisher, vice president of communications and a career expert at LinkedIn, told the AP. “It’s not just a nice-to-have. It does set you apart and give you an edge.”
Why the AI funnel makes human contact scarcer, not more dispensable
The logic runs against the grain of automation optimism. Online applications made applying easier — which means more people apply, which means employers lean harder on automated screening tools to evaluate large numbers of applicants, as the AP’s reporting puts it. Each layer of automation adds volume on both sides: candidates mass-apply with AI-polished CVs, employers mass-filter with AI screeners and chatbot interviews. The result, reported in the same feature via syndication by The Independent and other outlets, is that the signal of a real human introduction becomes scarcer precisely because everything else got automated.
There’s New Zealand evidence behind the unease: our October coverage of graduate job-seekers facing AI screening, and the petition against “ghost” AI-run interviews, describe a market where candidates already feel processed rather than seen. The AP feature’s experts effectively respond to that reality with a playbook — build relationships before you need them.
Matt Berndt, head career strategist at job-matching platform Indeed, told the AP the most common mistake is approaching networking transactionally — reaching out only when you need something. His suggested opener is an advice question instead: “I’ve worked in product marketing in technology for a while, and I’m considering consumer goods. Can you tell me how product marketing is different or similar?”
Other advice from the piece: keep first messages short and specific; ask for 15 minutes rather than an open-ended chat; and prepare concrete questions (“When you’re hiring, what are the skills you’re always looking for?”). When a contact does refer you, recruiters “will give that application a serious look,” Vox chief of staff Nisha Chittal told the AP — though one job seeker’s account in the same story punctures the fantasy that connections guarantee anything: her referral lost a race against an automated rejection notice.
The skill the bots filter out is also the one they can’t do
There’s a broader read for a careers section: networking is a genuinely AI-resistant skill that can be practised, not a talent you’re born with. Every part of it — asking better questions, writing shorter messages, following up without keeping score — is learnable, and none of it requires a paid course. It also compounds: the job seeker who builds relationships during good years enters the bad ones with warm introductions rather than cold applications.
For Kiwi readers the application is blunt. New Zealand’s job market moved in the same direction this month — unemployment at 5.7 percent, the highest in over a decade, and historically low job-finding rates per the Reserve Bank’s latest statement, as RNZ and Newsroom’s The Detail reported this week. In a market where 174,000 people are officially looking, the automated pile only grows; a direct human contact remains the one channel no screening model has filtered yet.
The practical summary for 2027 planning: use AI to sharpen the application, but spend the saved hours on people. The tools got everyone into the queue. What gets you past it is still a person who knows your name.
FAQ
Is networking still worth it when AI screens most job applications? Yes — arguably more than before. Career experts told the AP that as automated filtering expands, a personal referral or inside contact is increasingly the way applications get a serious look.
How do I start networking if I don’t know anyone in my industry? Experts suggest following people in your field, commenting on their posts, and asking short, specific advice questions rather than asking for jobs — for example, how their field differs from yours.
What do NZ job seekers face right now? NZ unemployment sits at 5.7 percent with historically low job-finding rates, and graduate job-seekers report facing AI screening — making direct human contact a practical differentiator.
— CJ Murden, editor of Singularity.Kiwi. Former digital technologies teacher, author of AI-focused books. Writing with a New Zealand focus.
